Tasks slated in preparation for my trip to London & Musing on the iPhone

Posted in technology, things i like on 11/04/2009 06:52 pm by karen

Select outfits for each day Done!
Procure hard copy currency Forget about it. I’ll just carry on using my ATM card.
Sort out how to travel with the iPhone.

This last one made me think about my relationship to the iPhone (aside from utter undying adoration).

I don’t want crazy surprise bills after my trip to London, which means I need to turn off the datastream on the iPhone. But turning off the data to avoid international roaming charges pretty much adds up to: “Why would I even bother bringing it?”

The last thing I need the iPhone for is actual phone calls (which may explain why I’m such a satisfied user).

Top 10 Ways I Use My iPhone

10. Blogging.
9. Recording audio reminders.
8. Listening to music.
7. Playing solitaire and mah jongg.
6. Taking photos.
5. Taking notes about random things in “real life.”
4. Reading. Kindle app. I haven’t read a non-Kindle book in months.
3. Taking notes in meetings at work.
2. Emailing and texting people.
1. Googling for general information.

Yup, the number one use, by far, is googling. How tall is Tony Clark? Should dogs eat avocado? What are food sources of magnesium? What’s the deal with CIT? Where is there some good pizza nearby? I seem to need to know lots of random things over the course of a day. Today I looked at the street the shala is on in Bethnal Green. I also located wool tights and read about peptides. When I travel, I google maps. And I need to have maps available at all times, because even if I map before I start my day in a new location, there’s a pretty good chance things are still going to go horribly wrong, finding-my-way-wise. I need to do update mapping and emergency mapping right on the street. Embarrassing, but true.

But I could do without a phone pretty much entirely. I don’t understand why people still use them. Well, except for 911 calls. Otherwise, it’s datastream and apps, baby. That’s what I really need.

 

Nice hotel in central London?

Posted in work on 11/03/2009 03:11 pm by karen

I know it’s late over there, but any of you Londoners want to suggest a nice hotel in central London? We need a place that’s got a fancy/comfy enough lobby for us to meet with/entertain executives. Thoughts?

 

Cold, Heat, Stretch, Eating palm fronds

Posted in ashtanga yoga, dog! on 11/03/2009 01:13 pm by karen

A little under the weather today. Kinda tired and headachey. Maybe a cold coming on? I was all pathetic at practice (internally, kinda whiny — externally, probably couldn’t tell anything was going on). But I pretty much had to fight off the impulse to just curl up on my mat and go to sleep.

***

“Why does baddha konasana hurt so much?” That’s a keyword phrase that brought someone to the site recently. If you’re still around and reading: take heart! It stops hurting. Eventually. It was a good couple of years (with 6 months off when my piriformis totally rebelled), but now baddha k is my FAVORITE pose. Largely because it was so hard won.

I think back though, and wonder: Why did I persist?

Is it some leftover tapas from a past life? That’s all I can figure.

***

Seems like psoas stretching is a big fad among Ashtangis these days. I’m in. I’ve been doing lunges twice a day for the past few days now. And there’s hanumansana after the prasaritas every day. Still, my shoulders and hip flexors are super-recalcitrant in backbends. Oh, I guess I’m responsible for that, eh? All of those squats and shoulder presses and my abiding love for climbing overhangs. Ah well.

We have to do what we love. Like eating palm fronds.

photo

 

Cheeky (prop) monkey

Posted in ashtanga yoga on 11/02/2009 03:48 pm by karen

Well, I’ve always kinda considered myself an adventurous prop-user. I like to make props; I like to find things that’ll work as props — stuff I find around the house, stuff I find on the internet. But I have to give big props (i.e., the compliment kind) to someone who, out of necessity, had to turn to George Clooney and Tilda Swinton in order to find the most amusing dropback prop ever.

 

Courtesy and (perhaps) cluelessness

Posted in ashtanga yoga on 10/30/2009 05:26 am by karen

Just read this in another blog: “the etiquette when a teacher is adjusting you in Mysore style, is to not do the vinyasa, so that the teacher can adjust you in both sides without having to wait and then move on to another student.”

Comments, cybershala? Is this so? If so, I’ve been inadvertently rude…

 

Pollo Gigante de Plástico!

Posted in ashtanga yoga on 10/26/2009 09:32 am by karen

You can read about the pollo gigante de plastico in the comments section of the previous entry. I love the phrase so much that I had to write a blog entry so I could use it as my title.

I took today off work because I am overworked (poor me!). Haha! It’s my own fault. I get kind of all-or-nothing about stuff, and sometimes I am exhausted by my own enthusiasm. Anyhow, since I didn’t have to go into the office, and since I watched and was inspired by Kino’s DVD, I figured I’d go into the shala and (cover your eyes, traditionalists) do all of intermediate.

It was pretty fun. Really the only thing that hurts is my right leg in foot behind the head poses. If I hadn’t discovered Ashtanga, I might have gone through my whole life without knowing how tight my right hip is. Kapotasana is coming along, as it has been and will continue to do, for probably forever. At this point, I get in by myself and then The Poetess comes by and pushes down on my elbows, at which point, I can grab the balls of my feet.

This is good progress, but I think when it comes to deep backbending, I may always be Pollo Gigante de Plástico! And I mean hard plastic, not the rubbery kind. C’est la vie.

Watching the Kino DVD was heartening, because she didn’t presume you would go from not being able to do a pose to being able to do a pose without breaking the darn thing down into component parts. She has a gaining-strength-for-nakrasana modification that would probably make lots of traditional teachers crazy if they ever saw it in their shala. Luckily, I am free to do those sorts of things at the place where I practice. I’m actually curious, now that I think of it, about how many prep poses someone could do before MM got annoyed. I limit myself to a couple before kapo and a couple before eka pada sirsasana.

Anyhow, the intermediate stuff was fun. I did the karandavasana modifications as Kino demoed on her DVD, including the falling on my butt part, and the climbing back up onto the backs of my arms while in lotus part. Whoa! That’s a hard mountain to climb.

The end of intermediate is fun because it’s strengthy versus bendy, so it makes me feel good about myself. I’m sorry, is that too blunt? ;-)

Even managed a strong muka hasta sirsasana C, which is the headstand that usually makes me shaky.

All in all, an okay practice. I had me some fun, I did some poses, some of them really well, some not — and all are works in progress. The Pollo Gigante is grateful she can do anything at all.

 

Sacrum or psoas? and: Duck, duck… dog?

Posted in ashtanga yoga, dog! on 10/25/2009 07:17 am by karen

Or maybe hip joint? Eh, who knows. A sharp pain that’s kicked off by internal rotation of the right leg. I am going to practice later than usual today, so all I know for sure right now is that my coffee is delicious and there’s something weird going on in the right hip. I’ll know more once I take it for a spin later on.

Sharp, sudden pains are tough to work with — like trying to hug a porcupine.

And my internal monolog about this whole thing is twofold: 1) I hope it isn’t bad enough to impact my practice substantially, and 2) Hey, it’s the right side! My tight side. Maybe this is an opening? That would totally rock. I can LBH on the left side with actual pleasure — can’t say the same, though, about the right.

Watched Kino’s Intermediate DVD yesterday. (Is THAT what caused this pain? ;-) ) Watching the practice DVD was cool, but the real treat is the “How to Work” DVD. Lots of stuff MM has taught me, and some expecially interesting tidbits.

Karandavasana: She demoed it with hands in headstand position. Do the descent and return. Then shift hands to pincha position (don’t come down, just shift ‘em in headstand — you can do it!), and come down with hands in pincha and head on the floor. Once the butt is down and knees tucked in, lift the head off the floor. She demoed falling from there, which was charming, and then suggested you walk the lotus back up the arms and carry on, lifting the duck with pincha arms and head on the floor.

I loved the tone of this DVD, which was all about incremental progress. Basically, you do and do and do until finally you really can.

***

Here are a couple of pictures of Waylon with his new toy: a stuffed duck. He loves his stuffed animals. I got him a red lobster, too. I find it endlessly amusing to see him walking around with stuffed animals in his mouth — the more colorful and ridiculous, the better.

new duck 1

new duck2

 

Afternoon reading

Posted in current events, dog!, moment on 10/18/2009 03:14 pm by karen

I accomplished a lot today, seemingly without really trying. By noon, The Cop and I had spent a little time having breakfast at Starbucks with Waylon, the house was clean, clothes were ironed for the week, and all my little chores completed.

When we first arrived at Starbucks this morning, a man was sitting outside at one table talking to a young woman at another table. She had on a yellow and gold dress and looked like she’d been up all night. She was very thin and twitchy and I understood she was a meth user even before I saw The Cop’s eyes, which change a little when he sees… uh, persons of interest.

As we were sitting with our coffee, an older man dressed in golf clothes stopped to look at Waylon.

“That is a big pit bull,” he said.

We told him that Waylon is not a pit bull. He asked a few questions, then said, “He seems friendly.” When we agreed, he smiled and drew closer and spasmodically poked the air in front of Waylon’s face a few times. “Nice dog,” he said as he walked happily to his car.

I wondered what kind of animals the man usually interacts with. His gesture wouldn’t be appreciated by cats. I thought about birds, and imagined him being bitten. Reptiles? I couldn’t imagine they’d respond well, either. The Cop had wondered the same thing and come up with his own explanation: “Maybe he has a five year old at home that he likes to flick on the head.”

***

Here’s a picture of Waylon with his true love. He can only play with it when Maxine is asleep. She does not allow anyone else to play with a ball when she is awake. Seriously. I have to hide yoga balls and tennis balls because she bites and “kills” the big ones, and declares ultimate ownership (she will NOT share, but will pretty much fight to the death) over smaller ones.

I was worried at first that Waylon might swallow the tennis ball, but as it turns out, he just wants to carry it around and lie down next to it and gaze at it lovingly.

waybo with tennis ball

***

Nothing like a super short short story. Lydia Davis. Here’s a good story — and a link to an interview, and a link to more samples…

 

Blogs and books

Posted in current events, things i like, work on 10/17/2009 01:02 pm by karen

Leading Your Boss: The Subtle Art of Managing Up
Harvard Business IdeaCast

Dance with Chance
The Invisible Hand: Management, Economics and Strategy (Episode 85)

Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the Potential in Yourself and Your Organization

The Reflective Practitioner

I listen to podcasts while I clean the house on the weekend. And then I look up books related to the podcasts. Today has been pretty entertaining. I mean, what more can I ask for: Managing up! Change management! Two of my favorite things. I am still reading last week’s find: James Austin’s Chase, Chance, and Creativity: The Lucky Art of Novelty, which is about Chance! and Creativity! and Science! More favorite things.

Okay, so today’s podcasts. Managing up (or down, or across) can be pretty discouraging, right? I have a few burn-out bald spots on my aura ’cause of being a manager, it’s true. And effecting organizational change? Using real people? Haha! As if!

Okay, so I recognize that the job of management can be unforgiving, and I recognize that people pretty much scoff at the idea that adult humans can really change, but here’s the God’s honest truth: I always feel optimistic about these things. Why? Because we can use *creativity* in the workplace, and an organization is an enormous petri dish just waiting to house new experiments! The more things seem impossible, the more I think up new ideas. I can’t help myself. I get invited to LOTS of meetings/teams/projects — it’s something my boss tries to protect me from, but it’s also something I find incredibly energizing. I think it’s a result of (and, let’s face it) a source of tapas. Yes, I think it’s intimately linked with my practice.

Yeah, I know. We’re supposed to use the energy that results from tapas to pursue spiritual enlightenment. I can’t shake the conviction, though, that we’re supposed to dig into real life, like the zen practitioner who finally rides the ox he’s tamed into the marketplace. Apparently, my ox is pointed toward a business setting. I’m as surprised about this as anyone.

 

More Austin & Weighty dogs

Posted in dog!, things i like, zen on 10/12/2009 04:43 am by karen

James, not Jane. “I,” not “e.”

I understood that James H. Austin writes about meditation, attention and the brain, but I didn’t realize how prolific he is. Here’s a terrific article that looks at the difference between allocentric and egocentric processing.

I read this paper last night before bed, tried to post the link here, but was somewhat stymied by the iPhone (well, too impatient to use the iPhone and too tired to get out of bed to use the laptop). When I was looking it up this morning, I also stumbled across this older book by Austin and discovered that Csikszentmihalyi has a book on creativity. I think I may have known about this book but set the info aside somewhere in my brain? Either way, I’m psyched to know about it this morning. ;-)

Csikszentmihalyi’s book Flow is a classic. If you haven’t read it, check it out. It’ll change your life.

***

Okay, so I’m trying to drink coffee and write this entry, but there’s an intervening factor. Waylon. Who, in this cooler weather, has reverted to sitting on my lap in the morning after his breakfast. Did I mention that he weighs 80 pounds these days?

When I type: si!*d0qjcnksl@)jqwem, that’s me pinned to the couch and smothering under bulldog love.

 
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